That’s right, we felt too constricted with a top ten list so we created a new kind of list, the “baker’s dozen” list. It wasn’t easy to put together–we debated, discussed, and pondered. We lost sleep and avoided eye-contact with each other. We asked, “Should we include only new tools? Are we suggesting tools librarians should learn about or tools that are tried-and-true? Should Google be one tool or five?” Emails circled for days as we discussed the pros and cons. We tried to keep it to just 10, but we couldn’t do it. Here’s our top *13*. Do you agree? What would be on your list?
1. Google Suite
There are so many useful Google tools we decided to create a new name for all of them, “Google Suite”. Every librarian can find something useful in the seemingly endless list of tools including Google Scholar, Google Books, Google Maps, Google Reader, Google Docs, and of course, the standard Google web search.
2. Meebo/Chatango
The number of libraries using Meebo
3. Wikipedia
Love it or hate it, Wikipedia is here to stay. We have to admit the external links at the bottom
4. Worldcat.org
Imagine the ability to search thousands of libraries in one search engine. WAIT! You can. Although library patrons may be unaware of it, librarians know all the advantages of using Worldcat for collection development, reference, and interlibrary loan.
5. Amazon.com
Okay - admit it, you too have used Amazon for collection development purposes. Whether it’s for the reviews or the recommender system (very early Web 2.0) that gives you ideas on what else might be connected to the subject you are looking for, you almost always end up with some new ideas for your collection.
6. Del.icio.us
Whether creating a list for yourself or to share with patrons, there is no better way to keep track of your 1,000 favorite websites. Check out these selections from Laurie
7. Bloglines
If our blog is any indication, Bloglines
8. Zotero
Even though it is still in its toddler-hood, Zotero’s idea of being a bibliographic manager that runs in your browser and grabs citations on your command from lists of books or journals is still appealing. Plus, the ability to make folders for your citations from particular topics is something that EndNote (via EndNoteWeb) is finally giving in to.
9. Facebook
On May 24 Facebook opened up development of their applications to the world, and in one day Facebook changed the landscape of the Web. Libraries and librarians are now adding and using all kinds of applications. Just look at this list of top 10 applications for librarians from the ilibrarian blog.
10. Wordpress
Librarians and libraries maintain 100’s if not 1,000’s of blogs; for a sampling check out LISZEN. Perhaps Wordpress is the most widely used, but there are just as many blogging software packages as there are librarian blogs.
11. MediaWiki
MediaWiki manifests major tenets of Web 2.0 concepts: web as platform and harnessing the collective intelligence. In other words, people working collaboratively via the Internet to create something: a web page, a tracking system for a group project or an encyclopedia. You’ll recognize this last use of wiki software as Wikipedia. Originally developed for the encyclopedia, many other sites use MediaWiki. We picked MediaWiki because of it’s large imprint, but there are plenty of other kittens in the caboodle from which to choose.
12. Ning
When Bill Drew created the Library 2.0 Ning group, he probably didn’t know it would grow to 2,185 members (and counting). Since Bill created his group, many other library groups have popped up including Slovak Librarians, Science Librarians, Public Libraries 2.0, and Business Librarians.
13. Twitter
Do you have a blackberry? PDA? Cell phone with all the bells and whistles? Tablet PC? Mobile instant messaging? Constantly aware of your friends’ and colleagues’ whereabouts and doings? Then you’ve probably experienced Twitter. It’s like itty bitty blog posts of your status-at-this-very-moment. Of course, libraries use twitter too, check out this site in Nebraska, or how about the University of Illinois, and this library in Boise. Perhaps the feds should explore Twitter for its parolees…
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Neat post!
Thanks!
-A Librarian
Very nice roundup!
I’ve gotta say, as cool as I think Zotero is, I have yet to hear any major success stories about it, and we’ve never had anyone ask about using it on our workstations. It’s such a neat idea, and the interface is sooo much nicer than the rather painful web-based citation management tools we have now. But being installed on a workstation just feels so Web 1.99 to me somehow, even with all the taggy goodness.
I definitely agree that Zotero has a way to go(for instance I haven’t been able to get successful journal article citations to work well for me yet) before the rule the citation world. I think we were with you that Zotero just feels like such a step in the right direction - and pretty unique for its category - that it deserved a nod. And Web 1.99 is still better than a fairly expensive Web 0.24 bibliographic management system!
Even though you included Google apps as a whole, I would single out Google Gears as something that could have a huge impact in the short-term until wireless broadband is ubiquitous. I’m in the middle of writing a post about this, but since we’re a few years away from always being a live IP address wherever we go, Google Gears is an incredible bridge to get us to that point. If you work a lot on a laptop, this tool can be one of your best friends right now, and as laptop use continues to rise, I think GG may be on your list next year, especially if other sites continue to integrate it (the way Remember the Milk does).
An excellent list–there are several I haven’t tried. At this point, my school’s Internet filter won’t let me go beyond the basic level on WorldCat, but I’ve requested that it be opened for deeper level access. I’ll be using most of the others from home, so I’m glad to have some new ideas.
Thanks for putting this together!
Just a note - my sense was that OSU’s chat statistics went up more like 4,000%.
Going up 400% would the your statistics quintupled. No mean feat, but the statistics I saw were something like from 14 to over 500 per month, 40 times the traffic.
It is amazing what the difference between a link to a service and a widget can do, and what the difference between a widget and a widget on every page will do.
Keeping stats on the use of a chat widget like Chatango is a tricky thing (I know, I’m the one who attempts to keep them at OSU). Chatango doesn’t keep logs, so we depend on librarians reporting the use they get. I gave our Infodoodads crew only a very general figure for this article when they asked me, but have dug out more “precise” numbers since then (if anyone is interested). 400% or 4,000%, it is still a whole heck of a lot!
“Traditional” IM (AIM/Yahoo/MSN that we do through Trillian) shows much lower use. This is probably because users have to have an account and log in. With a widget like Chatango you just type in the box in front of your face, no downloads or signing up. (Hey, no barriers!) The first month we added the Chatango widget to the web page (January), we had 26 Trillian users and 72 Chatango. In February it was 40 Trillian and 162 Chatango. By April, it was only 19 Trillian vs. 394 Chatango!
Wow, indeed.
Jenny L., I look forward to reading your post about Google Gears because I just attempted to do some research on it and I was confused by what I read. I need it explained to me like I’m in kindergarten.
Great list - I wonder if Amazon could be considered fully “2.0″ at this point - there is user-generated content on the site, and Amazon does give suggestions based on prior searching, both of which are building blocks of the Web 2.0 movement, but there still appears to be very little peer-to-peer interaction, or online community, that we see in most other Web 2.0 tools out there. Unless i’m missing something (and I use Amazon for collection development purposes and for confirming the spellings of author’s names, etc.)… I think it would be nice to be able to form groups around themes, authors, or professions, so that suggestions could be sent to the group, or between group members, etc.
The Krafty Librarian reworked the Top *13* list for medical librarians! Check it out:
http://kraftylibrarian.com/2007/08/top-13-web-tools.html
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Enter Slideshare. Slideshare is the YouTube of Powerpoint.
Upload your file and it creates an embeddable Flash version of your Powerpoint. It’s a beautiful thing.
http://www.slideshare.net
The best thing about Zotero is that you can store your digital files in one easy-to-get-to place. Speaking as a current student, I haven’t had much luck with citations from it except for ones I write out myself and keep in the “notes” area, which is still awfully helpful. It’s also great to have something that lets you do highlighting on stored HTML pages
I have found one nice tool www.GoogleItFaster.com . Is so clean and user-friendly, that I’m surprised why more web searching services are not using that solution. Do you have any idea?